Ex-Mossad Chief: ‘US-Iran nuclear deal is good for Israel’

Former Head of Israeli Mossad (1998-2002), British-born Efraim Halevy in a recent interview he gave to Jewish website Al-Monitor on sidelines of a conference on Middle East security issues in Istanbul late last month, said that the current US-Iran diplomacy would be good for the Zionist entity in the long run.

“If the Iranians think straight, they must realize it is inconceivable that they would be able to change the basics of the relationship between Iran and the United States whilst maintaining the level of denial and enmity they now have to Israel,” said Halevy.

“Once the nuclear file is closed, and sanctions removed, it will bring economic relief and a renewed view from Tehran of the opportunities the world is offering. And then, if there will be a desire to move beyond the nuclear issue, then the Iranian regime will be able to turn to the public and say, ‘we should no longer be in the business of fear mongering. If we want to move forward with the US, it will be difficult while maintaining a state of belligerency against one of the US key friends and allies. Maybe by then we’ll have moved to a new turn of events” on the Israeli-Palestinian front as well,” said Halevy.

Halevy is in favor of continued sanctions against the Islamic Republic to isolate it from the international community and hoping the Iranians to turn against the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He wants the US to make sure that Iran never achieve a nuclear capability, but he is against war with Iran. In November 2011, Halvey was quoted saying: “The US-Iran war could effect not only Israel, but the entire region for 100 years”. He also added that the “Jewish extremism in Israel poses a bigger risk than Ahmadinejad“.

Israel’s former National Security adviser, Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, has admitted to Israeli media that a deal between the US and Iran will shut Netanyahu’s war threats against Iran. “It doesn’t matter what we think about the deal. Israel won’t be able to do a thing,” he said.

With the Syrian chemical weapon deterrent destroyed, Israel’s well-wishers believe that a P5+1 and Iran nuclear deal in Geneva will deprive Hamas and Hizbullah a military leverage to defend themselves from Israel’s future wars.

Paul R. Pillar, former CIA’s top analyst, wrote last week that Israeli agenda is not to stop Iran from acquiring nukes (both Netanyahu and Obama know Iran is not working on it), but “to keep Iran in a hated, pressured, isolated status, and maybe even eventually to wage a war against it.” He also added: “Israeli government wants to prevent Iran from being an independent and accepted player in the region, to avoid giving the United States more diplomatic and political options in the Middle East than it has now, and to continue to divert attention from Israel’s clinging to, and colonization of, occupied territory (a matter on which the Israeli prime minister has been so obstinate as to drive Secretary of State Kerry, before he left Israel for Geneva, to deliver a burst of angry honesty on the subject).”

A six-month deal under which Iran would freeze all enrichment of uranium, in return for a modest lifting of sanctions, while the final agreement is negotiated. The final deal would put permanent limits and controls on Iran’s nuclear program to ensure it is not used to build bombs And there would be more and more intrusive inspections.

Iran today has no atom bomb. Has never tested a bomb. Has never exploded a nuclear device. Possesses not a single known ounce of 90 percent enriched uranium, which is essential for a uranium bomb. Nor does Iran have enough 20 percent uranium to make a bomb. And part of the stockpile it did have has been converted into fuel rods. There are inspectors in all of Iran’s operating nuclear facilities.

All 16 U.S. intelligence agencies in 2007, and, again, two years ago, said, with high confidence, that Iran has made no decision to build a bomb and has no nuclear weapons program.